This lighthearted romance comedy about a homeless girl who saves a god and is invited to live at a shrine. She finds that one of the inhabitants is not too keen on her staying there. With oddly inviting artwork, this sweet story of romance will grip your heart and have you tearing up with the climax of this story.

Story:Our homeless girl in question is Nanami Momozono. Her father is a gambler and gets into a great deal of debt, forcing her out of her home. Sitting in a park, she sees a dog barking at a man stuck in a tree. She shoos the dog away and afterwards she explains her situation to him. He invites her to his shrine to live after hearing her story and kissing her on the forehead.

This is where the show shines. The main protagonist is built beautifully. The character building is artfully done to a point where you honestly do not realize you have fallen in love with her until it has happened. You will strive right along side her; wanting to see her successfully achieve whatever goal she is reaching for. You also end up disliking her enemies and loving her friends as each character is added.

When it comes to world building, it felt to me as if I was just along for the ride. I was discovering the world along with the main protagonist. At no point did it feel like I was at odds with the world as it was being built. Likewise, while the characters were being built. As I stated, the story was so well told that I do not remember at any point that I was sitting through an instruction manual of boring information. The world was given on a platter, take it or leave it. Nothing came at me as a viewer that took me out of the story.

At first glance, you may be turned off by the art as well as the story. However as the show moves along and you see Nanami’s smile for the first time, you will just be happily be drawn along with this strange world. As the story progresses it becomes almost bi-episodic. Though oddly it did not cause any issue. Instead it feels both fast paced for a romance and still keeps its sweet charm.

I feel inclined to point out that there is the dreaded beach episode. This is about 10 minutes and honestly doesn’t take much from the experience. 5 minutes in, it ends up feeding into the main storyline. Not really obnoxious fanservice but rather to usher into the true plot and necessary for the continuation of the story. If anything I was more turned off by the introduction of the trope crossdresser that was randomly introduced at this point.

Animation and Art:
The animation in this show was clean. There was nothing over the top, so I can’t truly praise it. It was honestly pleasing to the eyes. It’s hard to honestly say anything negative about it. At first I was a little turned off by the simplistic nature of the character art. Adding in the “pretty boys” which honestly were a little over the top. Especially when placed next to the main protagonist. However she had a special charm to her art work which showed in the care that was placed on her. This is all culminated with her smile-one of the most perfect smiles I have seen in a long time.

Conclusion:
Kamisama Kiss is an honest gem. It is a sweet and beautiful story and definitely worth your time to watch. Great character building, strong world building, and the tears are hard to keep from welling up as it draws to a close. It left me wanting more and it’s definitely on my list of favorite romances.

Co-Founder of OtakuSpirit.com and Co-Host of the OtakuSpirit Animecast. Chris has been a fan of anime for over 20 years. Once amassing a huge collection of DVDs during the DVD boom, he's consumed hundreds of shows and isn't looking to stop any time soon.

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